Whale watching from a canoe (video)

A father and daughter are offshore in Queensland, Australia and are joined by two whales. It’s one thing to see a whale from a large boat, and quite another when you’re on a very small, two person boat. The daughter is very nervous (and there’s some NSFW language) as the whales swim along side, and then under the canoe.

Jojo and I had a fun experience kayaking with a Southern Right Whale in Walvis Bay (Afrikaans for “Whale Bay”) about 50 meters from the beach years ago. The whale dove under on one side and then popped up on the other side and continued to swim along with us for a few hours. The water was chilly and Jojo was worried about the kayak capsizing but in the end we were fine.

Southern Right Whale next to our kayak, Walvish Bay

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for the father/daughter that far offshore, with that much equipment in the small boat and to have two whales playing with them. Amazing, but still a bit scary.

Chris in Paris
An American in Paris, France. BA in History & Political Science from Ohio State. Provided consulting services to US software startups, launching new business overseas that have both IPO’d and sold to well-known global software companies. Currently launching a new cloud-based startup. Full bio here.

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This is now my favorite whale video ever. The best part is when she says, “Hellooo.”

Dano2

What a great mix of fear and curiosity they must have had! That’s a story they’ll always take out and share together, Wonderful.

Best,

D

hoplite_i

very cool. About two months ago we were in the lineup at our local surf spot in socal. Something started to breach right in front of us (about 15 yards outside of us). For a split second as it first started its rhythmic arch above the water I thought it was dolphin as we see them just about every day. But it just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then we noticed all the barnacles. It was a whale! Try being IN THE WATER with a whale. I will never forget that.